- The study commissioned by the Autonomous Region of the Balearic Islands and in accordance with the action plan approved by the regional government provides evidence that would make it possible to optimise the efficiency of public spending in education centres, mainly in Compulsory Secondary Education (ESO), without identifying significant differences between islands
- According to AIReF estimates, spending on non-university education in the Autonomous Region will experience an average annual increase of between 2.3% and 3.1% over the period 2022-2037 in the absence of reforms
- Undertaking a policy that would completely reduce inefficiencies would moderate the growth of non-university education spending by between 0.4 and 0.7 percentage points
- AIReF proposes to improve the efficiency of the system through periodic standardised evaluations, an educational centre efficiency index and fair teacher distribution based on best practices identified
The Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility (AIReF) published the study ‘Efficiency of non-university public education spending on human resources in the Balearic Islands’ on its website today, which aims to provide reliable and objective information to facilitate more efficient spending in the Autonomous Region and proper planning and allocation of human resources among the different public education centres. In the evaluation, AIReF finds that the non-university education system of the Balearic Islands has room for improvement in terms of efficiency and considers a series of proposals to achieve this.
The evaluation begins by reviewing the situation and context of non-university education in the Balearic Islands, where demographic dynamics are putting upward pressure on this spending item. Contrary to what is happening in other Autonomous Regions, population projections indicate that this growth trend will be maintained in the future, largely due to migratory flows. This justifies, to a greater extent, the need to seek solutions that guarantee efficient management and planning of human resources, the main budgetary item in the Balearic education system.
As shown in the study, spending per student in the Balearic Islands on non-university education exceeds the national average, while its educational results are slightly lower.
From the comparative quantitative analysis of the efficiency of the centres, considering their context in terms of income, percentage of foreigners and percentage of students with specific educational support needs, it can be deduced that the Balearic Islands education system has room to improve its efficiency because, without compromising the levels of knowledge of its students, it could reduce its teacher-student ratio in some centres, both in Primary Education and in Compulsory Secondary Education (ESO).
AIReF finds that there is a higher percentage of ESO centres than primary schools that could improve their efficiency, but it does not find any major differences in technical efficiency between islands.
The quantitative analysis is complemented by a qualitative analysis from which elements that could be conditioning the efficiency of the centres are extracted. On the one hand, the managers of several centres have stated that they face problems related to student numbers, especially due to the increase in the number of students with special educational needs and the consequent need for staff to provide them with support. Furthermore, other centres suggest limitations in terms of investment in infrastructure and maintenance which affect the quality of teaching and thus its efficiency.
Long-term effect
This evaluation also shows the long-term effect of different alternatives that seek to alleviate the inefficiencies identified above. In the baseline scenario, no reforms are addressed and non-university education spending growth would amount to between 2.3% and 3.1% per annum on average over the period 2022-2037, depending on whether this is updated with the CPI projection or with the evolution of nominal per capita income. In contrast, a strategy that eliminated all inefficiencies identified would reduce spending increases by up to 0.7 percentage points compared with the baseline scenario (0.5 percentage points if restricted to public centres alone).
Proposals
Following the analysis carried out, AIReF identifies a series of proposals that could help to improve the efficiency of the education system, such as periodically considering standardised diagnostic tests to monitor student progress, performing frequent efficiency evaluations, drawing up an efficiency index for education centres to assess their performance and considering the degree of efficiency of the centres in the allocation of teachers to ensure a fair distribution of human resources.
It also considers it advisable to implement strategies to harness the best practices of the most efficient centres and study the possibility of personalising the calculation of the allocation of support resources to adapt to the specific needs of each centre.